


from eden

by softshocks



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: F/F, lilitu!minji, slightly a world war ii au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:34:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24369691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softshocks/pseuds/softshocks
Summary: The world of Adam also finds a name for her, a child of Lilith, burdened by the curse of her Mother for seeking freedom:vampire.Minji lives in a liminal state of solitude for eons. Then, during the war, she meets Bora.
Relationships: Kim Bora | SuA/Kim Minji | JiU
Comments: 47
Kudos: 141
Collections: DreamCatcher Vampire Ficfest 2k20





	from eden

**Author's Note:**

> Had so much fun making this! Follows judeo-christian creationism, and some ancient texts.
> 
> Written for the dreamcatcher vamp fic fest [bat emoji] enjoy!
> 
> Come say hi, i’m @hausofbora on twitter, sharpshocks on tumblr

She doesn’t remember how she was created. 

She only remembers the darkness, then the light. The incredible dryness of her throat. Her Mother. 

_Hello, sweet one,_ her Mother says, her voice caressing her. Loving. Tender. _My name is Lilith, and you are Lily. Now, awaken._

And so she does.

-

It was certainly interesting to live a thousand years and then some. Humans were a particularly interesting bunch. 

She’d been watching them from the shadows, feeding occasionally, but she craved their company, their spirit. Knowing death was imminent seemed to give them purpose, a subtle sense of doing what you can, today.

(Sometimes she envies them.)

What had been most curious about them was their ability to create such grand things, so beautiful and worthy of awe even from God, and be capable of so much destruction and death. 

It was the world of Adam, after all. Man has never treated her kin with kindness. She found her family hunted, burned, sacrificed. 

They never deserved any of this. Her Mother only wanted freedom. _She_ only wanted to live, to treat people with the kindness they deserved because in the eternities she’s been alive, the world of Adam surely needed it. 

-

Her Mother had gifted her the ability to heal, as an apology for the curse of being a child of Lilith. She feels it in her spirit, when she takes care of humans - so fragile, so soft, so dangerous - healing was gentle, but also full of rage.

The God of Man was spiteful, merciless, and this was her revenge: reversing the damage that the God of Man inflicted. 

Sometimes she finds it absurdly ironic, that she was someone who fed on their blood because of her nature as a child of Lilith, and so she promised herself one thing: she feeds from those she heals, but she always heals from those she feeds from. It’s been that way for as long as she can remember. 

She’d been called a witch, and narrowly escaped her death multiple times. There were times she almost allowed it, but at the last moment fear grips her and she fights.

(Sometimes it almost ends in carnage. Even if she was gifted with healing by Lilith, she was also the daughter of her Mother, a creature of the darkness.) 

-

She doesn’t remember the exact moment she names herself Minji, instead of Lily - its true pronunciation cannot be accomplished by the mortal mouth of man - but the name stays. 

The worry her Mother might resent her clouds her mind, but she feels her approval in the gentle movement of the wilting leaves as another lonely winter approaches. 

_Minji,_ she repeats, practices it. It's nice, accompanies her for the rest of her lonely days. 

-

After the largest empire on earth falls, Minji runs into a child of Lucifer who had suffered the same fate her Mother eons before Minji was born into Adam’s world. 

He was the bringer of dawn. The morning star. The illuminated one. Lucifer only wanted freedom and was struck down. 

“I know you.” the child of Lucifer says, and Minji can see the brightness of the sacred, innermost part of her soul, one of which no other can penetrate — a stark contrast to the dark apparel she dons, and the piercing blackness of her eyes and her hair. She speaks in the language of the angels, but Minji understands her. 

“And I, you,” Minji replies, in the language of Lilith, but she knows the girl understands her. 

She learns later that Siyeon is her name. That they both had shouldered the generational burden of their respective parents, hurt by gods and humans with due credit to their curses. 

Across the millennia, it becomes an unspoken agreement to cross paths whenever either of them feels the heaviness of being alone. 

Sometimes Siyeon lets Minji feed from her and her blood tastes like no other, and Minji expects it in the first taste — the taste of the blood of a fallen angel will always be otherworldly. 

-

She becomes a healer, professionally, the moment that the world of Man allows her to be one.

Still, the quiet rage burns within her. Still, she heals.

Minji would have done so without asking for anything in return, and she tries not to, but the world of man was changing and everything had a material price — something Minji did not comprehend but had to comply with to ensure her survival.

 _Doctor_ , they called it. 

The world of Adam also finds a name for her, a child of Lilith, burdened by the curse of her Mother for seeking freedom: _vampire._

-

Minji has cared about many humans, and she watched them die just as often.

She was a doctor, too, so Minji being a stranger to death was further from the truth than anything else, even if personally, she may never experience it.

She has never turned a single one, couldn’t possibly take their death - a crucial part of human life, and the end of it - away from them.

Minji lived thousands upon thousands of years and never did she find a human who wanted to be turned, purely by will. 

Meeting Kim Bora changes everything. 

She’s magnetic, absurdly beautiful that she had initially thought that Bora would at least be a child of Lucifer.

Minji is painfully drawn to her - her spirit, her beauty, as much as Minji hates to admit it, her blood. 

It feels like a run of the mill romance that Minji enjoyed throughout the years that they meet at the height of the war, with Minji as a doctor at the frontlines and Bora an up-and-coming actress turned pin-up girl.

She’d been a shameless flirt, and she hadn’t known what it was about her that Minji couldn’t pull away from.

Maybe for Bora, it had been the rush of the war, knowing she could die at any moment, that had led her to pursue Minji.

Maybe for Minji, it’s the years of loneliness, and Bora’s smile, and her eyes, and the fierce kindness that Minji has never seen in the eons she has been alive. 

The first time Bora kisses her, Minji had just finished sewing a couple of men together in the makeshift infirmary of their base. They find each other in their favorite spot, under their favorite tree where the crickets chirp the loudest. 

It feels like a far-away place where no one can touch them, away from the grips of war. 

Her hands shake - she hasn’t fed in a while, and Bora’s blood sings when she blushes as Minji takes her hand, squeezes a little harder than usual. 

It’s careless, when Bora finally leans in after they’ve been dancing around each other for months, and it’s too much and never enough that Minji doesn’t even notice that the fangs she otherwise had no problems concealing sprouting out of her mouth the moment their lips touch, and even as Minji wants her even closer, she pushes her away. 

“Bora, I’m sorry,” she says, focusing her breathing, focusing on pushing her fangs back.

It’s too late. Now Bora will know what she is and shun her and _oh_ , what a bitter joke it was that she was so afraid of a human and that she, the millennia-aged creature, is the one running the opposite direction. 

Before she can take another step away, there is a vice grip on her wrist, keeping her in place.

Minji could have moved away, but Bora’s touch feels like a benediction. 

“Don’t run from me,” Bora says, as desperate as Bora can possibly sound. “Minji, stay.” 

She thinks of fleeing, but Bora’s easy touch outweighs the eternities of loneliness Minji has endured. 

That’s how she finds herself, seated in front of Bora, who watches her with curious, adoring eyes. No fear colors it, just Bora’s intense and focused gaze. 

“I’m not one of you,” Minji tells her, honestly, her voice shakes in a way it never had in her long years of living. “I’ve never been.” 

Bora asks no questions, only lets Minji talk. “My Mother was the first wife of Adam.” 

“Lilith,” Bora whispers, solemnly, like a prayer. 

Minji nods, turns away. “You should be afraid of me.” 

Then there are hands on her face, and Bora is so close. “Do I look like I’m going anywhere?” 

She spends a couple of moments, inspecting Bora’s face. She gets distracted, because she was painfully beautiful, and finds not a single trace of fear etched on her face — one that would have rivaled and outmatched the girl from Troy. 

No human filled the lonely gaps in Minji’s life the way Bora did. It would have broken her heart tremendously had Bora run away from her, afraid. 

But she was here, holding Minji’s face in her hands, brows furrowed. Her expression open, vulnerable. Minji has never seen that from her.

“No,” says Minji, then she leans in and kisses Bora, her fangs still poking out of her mouth. 

-

The first time she tastes Bora’s blood, she knows she’ll have no other. 

Bora opens herself up to her, all lovely smooth, porcelain skin. Blushing and breathing heavily, surrendering herself to Minji. 

“I love you,” Minji tells her. She will never know death but she feels an urgency to tell Bora, as if there would be a distinct end to her life in the near future. Maybe it was the war. Maybe this thing with Bora won't last forever. Maybe she was painstakingly in love that it feels like the first time or even the last. 

“I love you,” Bora replies, her voice trembling but still maintaining its tenacity. 

(Later, Bora makes Minji feel what a little death feels like — sudden, surprising, drawn-out, pulsating on every ancient nerve in her immortal body.

Later, she teaches Bora the closest way to pronounce the name given to her by her Mother. Bora’s accent is off, and it’s far from accurate, but her eyes grow wet from the sound of it whispered into her ear.) 

-

“Your girl is pretty.” 

Minji laughs. Siyeon drops by unannounced, sometimes, and she tries - with a zero percent success rate - to scare the living daylights out of her. “Jealous?” 

Siyeon only rolls her eyes, ignoring the question. 

She had missed Siyeon. She vaguely remembers the last time she’d seen her — possibly when the upper-middle class had started to do away with the monarchies. 

“Is she your plaything?” 

“You know I’m not like that.” 

Siyeon hums. “You’ve never fallen in love with a human before.” 

It’s far from an accusation, but a simple observation tainted with pity. Somehow, that takes Minji’s immortal heart into a vice grip. “Is that a problem?” 

“Not for now.” 

Siyeon’s right, but Minji doesn’t want to believe her. 

-

On nights where Bora is anxious about the next day, Minji always asks her what she’s afraid of. 

Sometimes it’s not waking up tomorrow. Sometimes it’s a dark room and she can’t move. Sometimes it’s her beauty melting away. 

Not once did she mention Minji, or anything similar to that. 

“I always wonder why you’re never afraid of me.” Minji chuckles. Their whispers at night were delicate, so delicate. Minji honestly did not think Bora was capable of doing so. “I’m literally a vampire.”

Bora has always been brave. It was barely necessary to be an ancient being to know that. 

“You’ve never given me a reason to,” she replies, leaning her face into Minji’s palms. “Your hands have never done anyone or anything wrong, even if the world has hurt you and your family so many times.” 

Never being afraid of death means that during the war, it had been Minji comforting Bora. But now, Bora holds Minji as she weeps. 

Minji has suffered eons alone, so she lets herself be held by the first love of her very long life.

-

Minji never pops the question first, and she doesn’t want to, out of respect. It’s Bora, bold and brash, who asks instead. 

They’re curled up together, on a picnic mat, away from the site. Sometimes refuge is all they need at the height of the war, or the end of it. Minji doesn’t know anymore. All she knows is that man is capable of so much evil and pain. 

“Are you sure?” Minji asks, trembling. Her mind says no, you can’t possibly share the burden of the unjust curse with Bora. Her heart says otherwise, and maybe she’s selfish and wants to keep Bora with her for the rest of all the eternities she’ll live through. 

Bora nods, never missing a beat. When she means something, she truly means it. Four years together have proven that. 

“Why?” She genuinely did not understand why a human would want to see so much of the world even more. They were stranded in the middle of the war. They’ve both seen so much. 

“I want to be with you,” Bora tells her, kissing Minji’s neck - featherlight, so careful, but a fire ignited by Bora rages inside Minji. “Is that not enough?” 

“They’ll recognize you.” It was true. Perhaps Bora will be immortal, in a different way. The few films she’s done is out there, and so were her posters. 

(Minji asked her, one night they sought each other, if she was just Bora’s fountain of youth. She was absolutely not prepared for Bora to react so violently, and refused to speak to Minji for roughly five days.)

Bora, beautiful, ethereal, so lovely and loving - Minji has never loved anyone else, can never love anyone else. “I don’t care about any of those. I’ll deal with them later.” 

“The world of Man is evil.” They were in the middle of the war. How could Minji take away Bora’s exit from it? 

“But you aren’t.” Bora kisses her hands. “You aren’t, and you’re the only one that matters to me.” 

Tears spring to Minji’s eyes, and she’s done convincing Bora otherwise.

Who was she kidding? She wanted Bora just as much. Minji would be lying if she didn’t feel the same way. 

“Do you really want to share this with me?” _This_ , meaning her Mother’s curse. _This_ , meaning living until the end of time. _This,_ meaning everything that Minji was, is, will be. 

“It’s not a curse,” Bora smiles, kissing her sweetly. “Not if I’m with you.” 

-

“So you’ve decided?” Siyeon says, and again, it doesn’t surprise Minji anymore. 

“Yes.” 

Siyeon smiles, her sacred light glowing from inside her. “Good for you. Looks like you won’t be seeing me anymore if you’re lonely.” 

It’s entirely in jest, but Minji softens. “I still want to see you. You’re my friend.” 

“And you need to feed from me.”

“That, too.” She concedes. “I think you’ll like her.” 

Siyeon laughs, and for all the darkness and light battling inside her, she was beautiful. “Well, the rapture is still far away. We have lots of time to be acquainted.” 

-

When Bora is turned, she shares the same healing ability as Minji. 

Her first word as a turned child of Lilith is _Lily,_ pronounced correctly, as she no longer had the mouth of a mortal. 

Her Mother gives Bora a name: _Alice_. Of noble descent. Of kindness.

**Author's Note:**

> In proto-judeo christian creationism, lilith was the first wife of adam, who was banished and cursed when she refused to be subservient to him. There are a LOT of variations of her story, but I liked that several demons in ancient texts can be attributed to her - one of which is the vampire. Then I was struck with the vision that minji’s english name was lily. Everything snowballed from there. 
> 
> Lucifer, or commonly known as Satan, was a fallen angel. His ambition, in many texts, was not to overthrow the Christian God but to bring light, illumination, free will. He was commonly referred to as “dawn bringer” and “morningstar”, titles that jesus - the christian messiah - also shares. 
> 
> So there. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
